Jane Richmond Hyslop, known professionally as Jane Child, is a Canadian singer, songwriter and record producer best known for her hit single "Don't Wanna Fall in Love". She is also known for her unique and unusual fashion style, which included a hairstyle made of spikes and ankle length braids and a nose chain piercing.
Career
Child was born in Toronto, and is the daughter of noted Canadian classical musicianRicky Hyslop and Lorraine Johnson. She joined Canadian Opera Company's children's chorus in her youth. Child was a classically trained pianist during her youth but at 15 she dropped out of school and joined a touring band, playing the synthesizer and singing in their shows. While she had various musical jobs such as organ player in churches or piano bars, or doing commercial jingles. Eventually Child cut a demo tape and was signed to a label which relocated her to New York and then Los Angeles. Adamant on producing her own music, Child left the label and after negotiations with other labels, she settled with Warner Bros. Records, who agreed to sign her on her own terms. Her debut album, Jane Child, released in 1989, was fully written, produced, and performed on the synthesizer by Child herself, a rarity for a debut artist signed to a major label. Due to her musical style and her emphasis on control over her music, she was at the time labelled by the press as "the female Prince". She is best known for the hit single "Don't Wanna Fall in Love" which peaked at No. 2 on the BillboardHot 100 in 1990. The song was also a big hit on the R&B chart, peaking at No. 6, a rarity for a white artist. Her follow-up single, "Welcome to the Real World", was a modest hit, peaking at No. 49 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1993, she released her second album, Here Not There. In the album, she broadened her R&B sound to mix it with traces of rock, grunge, and Eastern music. The album and its singles were a commercial failure, and she was dropped from the label and kept a low profile for the rest of the decade, releasing a few collaborations with Japanese artists in that country. Her third, and latest album, Surge, was released in 2001 on her own label Sugarwave. That same year, she re-recorded the song "World Lullabye" from her debut album and sold the single through her website, all proceeds donated to the Twin Towers Fund. She recorded a cover of Tina Turner's "We Don't Need Another Hero" for a tribute album, What's Love? A Tribute to Tina Turner, released in 2004. She has been married to Cat Gray, the chief musician on Let's Make a Deal, since 2004.
